Lando Norris is now a Formula 1 race winner, but he is not the only driver who had to wait a long time for their first big hit. F1 history is filled with stories of drivers who had to work really hard for their long awaited first victory. In this episode: “The Brummie Mammoth” Nigel Mansell.
Nigel Mansell is widely regarded as one of “The Big Four”, the four drivers who dominated racing in the second half of the 1980’s and the early 1990’s. The group - consisting of Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost - would win 93 of the 112 races between 1985 and 1991, as well as every single driver’s title. But while Senna, Prost and Piquet would be fairly quick in securing their first victory, it would take Mansell a full six seasons before he could stand on that top step of the podium.
In Mansell’s case, it largely had to do with the team he drove for. Lotus may have been a title winning team, but there wasn’t a trace of that left when Mansell stepped into that car in 1980. The car was slow and unreliable. Mansell was a stand-in that season and only participated in three events: he retired in two of them with mechanical issues and failed to qualify in the third because of a crash. It would be a prelude for his entire four years with Team Lotus: out of the 59 races he drove for the team, he only finished 24 of them.
| Nigel Mansell | |
|---|---|
| Year of first win | 1985 |
| Races before first win | 72 |
| Podiums before first win | 6 |
That’s not to say it was all doom and gloom at Team Lotus. Mansell definitely showed his talent during that time. The seventh race he drove for the team, round 5 of the 1981 season, was the second time he managed to finish a race. And not just finish: he ended in third, getting him his first ever podium in only the second race he finished. He would continue to get a total of five podiums in his time with Lotus, which isn’t bad considering that once again, he only finished in 24 races.
Inner-team struggles
What didn’t help though, was that things were going terribly behind the scenes. Mansell struggled to make sense of the car while his teammate Elio de Angelis was much more comfortable. That meant that De Angelis not only achieved better results, but also got the best parts and all the upgrades while Mansell had to wait much longer for that. Mansell initially wasn’t popular with the sponsors either and only after all the other British drivers in F1 retired did he get some strong support from the team’s sponsors. He always wanted to partake in other races as well, particularly the 24 hours of Le Mans, but the team refused out of fear that he’d injure himself. Mansell did have a great relationship with team principal Colin Chapman. Chapman however unexpectedly died in 1982, which Mansell described as “losing a member of my family”. Chapman’s replacement, Peter Warr, hated Mansell. He refused to give Mansell any of the good parts, including the much better turbocharged engine, and even intended to kick Mansell out a year earlier than his contract allowed. And even though Mansell did stay on, Warr made it very clear that there was no place for him. In his last race with the team, Mansell requested different brake pads, which Warr refused him. Mansell drove in second place near the end of the race when his brakes suddenly failed him and forced him out of the race. When Mansell left, Warr said: “He'll never win a Grand Prix as long as I have a hole in my arse”.
The 1985 Williams car that Mansell drove.
Transfer to Williams
It is my firm belief that Mansell’s increase in form came specifically to spite Warr.
By this point, Mansell wasn’t exactly a hot commodity. He had a strong tendency to retire from races, he had scored podiums but his teammate had actually won a race, and he had a widely known highly toxic relationship with his team principal. That usually doesn’t land you a spot at a top team, but that’s exactly what happened. Mansell would go to Williams for the 1985 season, where he would be paired up with ‘82 world champion Keke Rosberg. Mansell rocked up for the opening race of the season, his spirits reinvigorated by leaving Lotus, and he would immediately… DNF. Turns out some of the mechanical issues had followed him from his old team. But during the season his form would improve and he’d get six more points finishes, including a career best second place. That elusive first win however was still out of his reach.
The European Grand Prix
It seems to be a recurring theme in these articles that the first victory happens during a hotly contested title fight, and that’s no different this time. The 1985 title fight went down between Alain Prost and Ferrari driver Michele Alboreto. Prost had a comfortable lead over the Italian and could theoretically get the title already if Alboreto DNF’d and he himself finished fifth or higher. That would be no easy feat, because the field was absolutely stacked. There were of course Piquet and Senna, as well as De Angelis in the other Lotus which had suddenly become a very good car. Stefan Johansson sat in the other Ferrari and there was a slew of strong midfield drivers. While Rosberg and Mansell weren’t in the title fight, they had proven themselves as strong contenders for the lead and Rosberg had even won a race already. That became all the more clear when they both qualified ahead of Prost, who could only manage sixth.
Rosberg decided to go for an aggressive approach. After catching up to Senna and Piquet, he tried to overtake the two Brazilians at a fast part of the Brands Hatch Circuit. Overtaking Senna in his prime wasn’t exactly an easy feat though. Senna blocked Rosberg going into the corner, forcing the Finn to go onto the grass, spin, and crash into Piquet. Rosberg had to limp back to the pit with a puncture while Piquet was given the pleasure of watching the rest of the race from the sideline as his suspension was torn to shreds. All this promoted Mansell up to second, though he was still well behind Senna.
When Rosberg came back out of the pits, he was a full lap down. Well, almost a full lap down, because he exited the pits right in front of Senna. Nowadays he would get a blue flag to let Senna by, but back in the 1980’s that wasn’t a thing yet. Rosberg was still pissed at Senna for forcing him onto the grass, so he figured this was his best opportunity to ruin Senna’s race as well. He began holding Senna up, slowing him down so much that Mansell could catch up and easily overtake the Brazilian. Then, in an absolutely genius - and slightly evil - move, Rosberg let Mansell past but cut back in front of Senna to continue holding up the Brazilian driver. If someone would do that these days they would be disqualified from the race and get a serious penalty in the championship, but again: this was the 1980’s.
The Ferrari of Michele Alboreto, lap 14.
Rosberg held up Senna long enough for Mansell to build a gap and for De Angelis and Johansson to catch up to the Brazilian. By this time, the championship fight was over. Alboreto’s Ferrari suddenly remembered that it was Italian and spontaneously burst into flames. Prost - who had fallen back a bit at the start - was now fighting his way back into the points and was driving in sixth already. Rosberg meanwhile had grown tired of toying with Senna and set about catching up with the rest of the field, clocking in fastest lap after fastest lap. And Mansell in front was just calmly and steadily cruising to the finish line.
Senna would get overtaken by two other drivers, both of whom suffered mechanical failures before the end of the race, keeping the Brazilian steadily in second place and leaving Mansell without any real challenge to his lead. Prost was helped by all these mechanical failures to fourth place, which turned into third when Johansson’s Ferrari decided to follow Alboreto’s lead. Rosberg had also caught back up with the rest of the field and was quickly closing in on Prost. The Frenchman did some quick calculations, realized that he would still win the title in fourth, and decided to let Rosberg by without a fight. Up front, Mansell won the race 20 seconds ahead of Senna, with Rosberg only 37 seconds behind him despite being a lap down at the early stages of the race. Prost became France’s first F1 champion. Commentator Murray Walker remarked that Mansell had really become a changed man since moving to Williams and James Hunt added that he more than deserved the win that day.
For Mansell, it of course wouldn’t be the last victory. In fact, he’d win the very next race as well and mount a strong title challenge in the next year. He’d eventually become champion in 1992 with Williams. He retired in 1995 with a total of 31 wins to his name.
Mansell (middle) celebrating with Prost (right) while Rosberg (left) is doing the one thing he loved more than racing: smoking.